St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-14
GROWING GREAT.
The Y. VI. c. A. Celebrates an An
niversary and Talks of Coming
Fine Quarters.

Y
Fine Quarters.
The twenty-first anniversary of the
Young Mems Christian association in
Minneapolis was celebrated at the First
Baptist church last evening and in
spite of the weather drew a fairly large
audience, composed mainly of young
and middle-aged men. The exercises
opened with the singing of the hymn
''All Hail the Power of Jesus Name,'
after which Bishop FosS led i'll prayer.
His appeal was an eloquent one, and
touched mainly upon the good work &C
complished by the Y. Nj. {. A. At the
conclusion the male quartette of the as
Sociation sang Give Praise to God"
The treasurer'S report showed that dur
ing the year IS, STR had been received
and IS, 292 81 paid out. d. c. Bell, the
new president, made a few remarks
upon the early history of the association
in Minneapolis. 1t was organized, he
said, in 1865, in small church on Wash
ingtOn avenue, near where Temple
court now stands. The duties of the
officers then were mainly to take turns
in sweeping out the rooms and
to pay the running expenses.
But things had changed since
and the duties did not fall entirely upon
one or two persons. William NJ. Tenny,
the retiring president, followed with re-
marks upon the history of the aSsocia-
ton for the past year. The present
rooms in the Syndicate block said he,
''are far too small for our present num-
beers. 1t would be pleasant to give a
complete history since the organization,
but time will not permit. The member
ship of the association is now over
LOCO. and is continually growing. We
have not a large balance left in the
bank. and for this | am glad, for If we
had it would indicate that we were not
doing all we should. But there is no
need for getting too much money, as we
can use ali that comes to us in way
that will come back a hundred fold.
What we need is a building of our
own. and to accomplish the most good
w must have it. While |our present
roolEs are pleasant and homelike, they
are not large enough by far. The
building fund is HOW about $4,000, and
lot has been purchased on the
corner of Tenth street and Mary place.
But we must have more money, and if
any one feels that he must speak out in
meeting and give 5000 or 81 900 we will
not stop him. Secretary Elliott then
gave a few figures showing the number
of branches of the association, the num-
Der of members, etc, all of which were
published in the annual report month
ago. During the past four years there
had been 1,400 young men taken as
members of the association. The rail-
way companies had, the speaker said,
given over $4,000 to aid the association
within the last year.
d. C. Bell introduced Richard G..
Morse. of New York city. Mr.. Morse
said THAT this is the anniversary year
of the international committee. which
was organized in New York in 1865
Two years ago there were only sixty
five associations in the United States
Now there are over 1000, having men,
berShip of something over 100000.
Nefrly all are associate members. young
mCn Who have not yet joined the church.
Jne amount of money contributed by
the general public to those associations
is also gratifying. Last year S1,000,000
was contributed. But to offset this S10,-
O00.OO0 is annually spent in whisky
alone to demoraliZe young men. Let
us hope ..hie will be reverse in the
course of time. Out of every s12 donated
to the Y. NJ. G. \. 81 goes to the super
vision, and thus we have been able to
distance all other countries with similar
organizations. Even England, the home
of the association, is behind us. There
are are now over 1000 association
buildings in the United States,
and they cost over S5,G00,G00. These
are all owned by the Y. NJ. c. A.
and devoted entirely to helping young
men. In the last two years forty-siX
buildings have been erected. and there
are now in process Of erection, twenty.
This is an indication that business men
are beginning to see the good in these
associations, and are willing to help.
There are now over 600 general secreta-
ries in the United States. men who have
resolved to conSecrate their lives to
Christ and to the saving of young men.
This is wholesome growth and it is
growing stronger every day. There is
group of associations that are some
what peculiar. These are the railway
branches, and there are now sixty, and
in some cases the general secretary is
paid by the railway company. From
this it would seem that the railway COM
panies know. a good thing, and look upon
the Y. NJ. G. A. as means of making bet
ter Workmen. Our association is rep
resented in over 200 colleges in the
United States, and the young men who
are identified with them are the young
men who will represent the country
hereafter. Each association should
have its own building, for rented quar-
tors soon become too small. Boston and
Cleveland have outgrOwn their first
buildings and are now erecting larger
ones. Atlanta and Milwaukee have
new buildings, and thus you see that
the work is growing rapidly. When the
Y. NJ. G. A. building was erected in
New York at a cost of S250000 many
thought that we were extravagant, but
we soon had to erect another building at
" cost of s15O,000, and later on it was
found necessary to erect building for
the German speaking youths. Mr..
Vanderbilt is now erecting
building to cost 100000 for the
railway branch there. This work does
non show deficiency in the churches,
but success. in thus organizing its
forces and helping young men. Is it
not wholesome sign to see the saloon
men organizing? They, see that the
young men are leaving them, and erect
Ing a house that beats the public house.
I'M closing, | congratulate you upon your
Y. NJ. G. A. in Minneapolis. Twas here
ten years ago. and can see a wonderful
change. 1t will not be long, l pre-
dict, before you have an asso-